‘A thousand bucks for smear story’: Cash offered for negative Elliott coverage
The former lawyer for disgraced developer Jean Nassif offered $1000 to a Liberal lobbyist to get a story into the media alleging then-police minister David Elliott breached COVID restrictions because he was having an affair.
Sharangan Maheswaran, Nassif’s one-time lawyer and a former Labor councillor, offered the payment to lobbyist Jeremy Greenwood if he could convince a reporter to write a damaging story about Elliott having an affair.
There is no suggestion the allegations are true, and Elliott has always denied any wrongdoing.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption is investigating whether Nassif wanted to damage the political career of Elliott, who was a long-time enemy of the disgraced developer.
The commission on Wednesday continued hearing evidence from Maheswaran, who is also a person of interest in the public inquiry codenamed Operation Rosny. Maheswaran is accused of blackmailing former Strathfield mayor Matthew Blackmore and illegally recording his fellow councillor.
The corruption inquiry on Wednesday was told about a text exchange between Maheswaran and Greenwood after the Toplace lawyer sent a picture of a car, taken during surveillance of Elliott.
Maheswaran told the commission he asked an investigator, known as Mr Nanetti, to do some basic surveillance on Elliott before personally paying Nanetti about $1000 to return to Elliott’s street to take photographs.
The lawyer then wanted to convince News Ltd journalists to write a story claiming Elliott was breaching COVID rules because he was in the company of a woman who was not his wife.
Maheswaran told Greenwood: “A thousand bucks if you can get the yarn up”. Greenwood responded with “hahaha”. Maheswaran replied: “Not joking”.
Maheswaran told the inquiry it was not a serious offer.
Maheswaran also provided a brief to private investigator Shane De Kauwe naming Elliott as the principal target, and listed information about Elliott’s sons, wife and chief of staff, and a number of Hills Shire councillors.
“It must have occurred to you that Mr Nassif was developing some conspiracy theories about why his developments were being blocked, rather than just actually looking at the genuine problems that were there with his developments,” counsel assisting Dr Peggy Dwyer, SC, asked.
Maheswaran told the inquiry Nassif had considered launching defamation action against an individual who was making negative comments about his developments, and “he wished to see if there was some improper purpose or politically motivated purpose in the comments that were being made”.
The commission has heard evidence Maheswaran and Jeremy Greenwood had ongoing discussions about getting a journalist to publish a negative story about Elliott supposedly breaching COVID restrictions but struggled to convince a reporter to run the unsubstantiated claims.
“So you’re persistent about that story, weren’t you, because you knew that that was one of the outcomes that would please Jean Nassif, whether he was actively seeking it or not?” Dwyer asked.
Maheswaran responded: “No, I have a decade of track record pitching stories that are adverse to Liberal National MPs, ministers, and, frankly, that’s something that I would do from time to time, if it came to my attention.”
Earlier, Dwyer told the commission former Wollondilly MP Nathaniel Smith had been called for a private examination after the inquiry had heard evidence Charles Perrottet possessed some audio recordings of Elliott.
Those recordings had been referred to as “covert recordings”.
However, after questioning Smith, Dwyer said the recordings were determined to be pocket dial voicemails, inadvertently left by Elliott on Smith’s phone. Smith then passed on those voicemails to Charles Perrottet.
Dwyer told the commission that ICAC staff had amended previous transcripts to correct those references to covert recordings.
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